Today in North Bearolina, the Bears took on a wonderful task of serving with an organization called Green Works. The purpose of this organization is to offer fresh, organic products to anyone in the community for no cost. Green Works believes that every person should have access to organic, fresh food, even if they cannot afford it. Because of this belief, they allow anyone in the community to freely pick anything from their gardens whenever necessary.
So, starting at nine this morning, the Bears headed off to the orchard. We were all prepared to get our hands dirty and do a lot of manual labor until three in the afternoon. We were told that the last group that helped out worked all 7 hours and got about 300 trees planted. So we were prepared and excited for a long day of work. After everyone was assigned a job, the Bears got to work. Shortly after we started, we realized how great our group worked together. Everyone was encouraging each other, working hard, and having fun. In just an hour and a half we had already planted 300 trees! We were on a roll and decided we wanted to plant all of the trees we had which was about 700. During our time of working, we also had a lot of fun. We came up with rapper names for everyone in our group and proceeded to make our own raps about everything we have done this week to songs. After making the hard decision of assigning the perfect name for each Bear, we realized we had finished planting all 700 trees. That’s right, we planted 700 trees in just three hours! This would have been so difficult to accomplish if it wasn’t for everyone in the group working hard and working together.
After finishing up with Green Works, we headed back to the church we are staying at to clean up, change, and eat lunch. Once that was finished, the Bears set off to explore more of Asheville. We ended up going on a beautiful hike with waterfalls throughout it. We were soaking up all the water and warmth we could (causing major sunburn for everyone) on our second to last day before leaving. But the views of the waterfalls made the burns worth it.
Today was a great way to finish out our week of service. With every day being a unique experience, we have encountered many different things and have been educated and equipped to bring what we have learned back to Springfield. I am so sad this trip is coming to an end, but the memories and experiences I have will have a lasting impact on my life. I cannot imagine spending my spring break doing anything else with different people.